The Lily and the Sunflower

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (1861–1875), Morris & Co. (1875–1940)
Left: Golden Lily (1899, J.H. Dearles) on wallpaper in indigo
Right: Sunflower (1879, William Morris) on velvet in saffron/vellum

                You have heard, I think, a few of you, of two flowers connected with the æsthetic movement in England, and said (I assure you, erroneously) to be the food of some æsthetic young men.  Well, let me tell you that the reason we love the lily and the sunflower, in spite of what Mr. Gilbert may tell you, is not for any vegetable fashion at all.  It is because these two lovely flowers are in England the two most perfect models of design, the most naturally adapted for decorative art—the gaudy leonine beauty of the one and the precious loveliness of the other giving to the artist the most entire and perfect joy.  And so with you: let there be no flower in your meadows that does not wreathe its tendrils around your pillows, no little leaf in your Titan forests that does not lend its form to design, no curving spray of wild rose or brier that does not live for ever in carven arch or window or marble, no bird in your air that is not giving the iridescent wonder of its colour, the exquisite curves of its wings in flight, to make more precious the preciousness of simple adornment.

                We spend our days, each one of us, in looking for the secret of life.  Well, the secret of life is in art.

Oscar Wilde
“The English Renaissance of Art”
in Essays and Lectures (1913, Methuen & Co.)